Sometimes sizing mojo deserts me

Updated to add: This post made my lovely commenter think she had offended me. :( She totally did not, I was really just using what she said as an excuse to poke fun at myself and how my projects don't always work out as planned - something which I'm sure has happened to all of us! I'm very, very sorry to have made her feel like she needed to apologize to me - this is clearly a valuable lesson for me to learn about blogging and responding to comments. I've edited things so that hopefully I don't sound offended; and instead sound amused at my own knitting vagaries, which is what I meant to be.

On Ravelry, one of my readers was lovely enough to comment on the cardigan I tried to make for DD2, but actually ended up fitting DD1. She light-heartedly observed that this "hey, it doesn't fit" phenomenon seems to happen to me quite a bit. This reminded me that sometimes the size of things doesn't always turn out properly, you know?

For instance, my dad's Morgan hat for Christmas?

I tried to finish it recently and found that somehow, although I had been following the large instructions, it had come out way too small. No clue how that happened, since it was sized just right when I made it last year for DD2's teacher. As far as I can tell, the only way to fix it is to rip the whole thing back and start again, probably with larger needles this time. (And I'm almost certainly going to run out of yarn the second time around, but I should be able to get around that by knitting the part that folds under out of sight in a different colour of the same yarn.)

My Ljod cardigan turned out too big for me:

DH's 50th birthday present was far too massive:

This Sourpatch vest ended up fitting DD1 instead of DD2 as originally intended:

These mittens for BIL#2 are pretty damn huge:

This much-anticipated Fjalar sweater for myself doesn't really fit right in the proper places, plus I made the sleeves too short:

I meant for this to be a beret and failed miserably (I have since figured out beret physics, though, yay):

These socks have never fit me properly, I think I made the feet too short:

This tabard keeps falling off my shoulders:

These mittens never got past this point as it was clear they were going to be far too huge:

This sweater for DH totally fooled me - I started out making a medium, then the ribbing made me think it was going to be too small, so I ripped it back and did it in large instead, and guess what? Too big, of course!

And then, worst of all, my first adult sweater for DH, which ended up coming down to about his knees:

I can't be alone here, right? :) Do you have any projects with sizing woes?

Double the knitters, double the wardrobe

I was right.

That is my anniversary gift from my husband: a red Ljod cardigan.

IKR?!? I can't believe it, either. And the icing on the cake?

It fits way better than the one I made.

I would like to point out a few things. Firstly, this is his first sweater/cardigan ever. Secondly, it's a very involved pattern, with shaping happening all over the place at different times. It was written by Elsebeth Lavold, whose instructions are often confusing in at least a few spots. Furthermore, he altered the pattern a bit as he thought appropriate in order to make it fit me.

I don't know about you, but I find all that compared with how great the cardigan looks to be pretty gobsmacking.

Possibly the best part was that we spent a fair bit of time on our anniversary comparing the two projects, agreeing on where the pattern instructions leave something to be desired, and just basically knitgeeking all over the place. :)

Is it any wonder I've been married to this man for eleven years?

Double the panic, double the fun

So this month, I suddenly found myself with two pieces of deadline knitting, where the deadlines were coming up fast. The good news is, this story has a happy ending - both pieces are done. The highest priority project was a sample piece - I wanted to get it out the door no later than mid-month because I have an irrational fear that the postal service is going to screw up and take forever. And I met that goal. Unfortunately, I can't say more than that - Peyton commented on a previous post that I was such a tease about that sort of thing, and it's true, sorry! Do you find my vague discussion about hush-hush projects annoying? I throw them in there just to give an accurate overall picture of what I'm working on at the moment, but if it's irritating, I can stop. :)

The second project, of course, was the Ljod cardigan for me that I'm making for my husband for our anniversary because he wants to see me in it so badly. Since tomorrow is our anniversary, I had to get it finished by then, and...I have.

I'll post a picture of it on me at some point when I can take one (or get one taken of me). I'll also have to post a close-up shot of the buttons, they're gorgeous.

I'd love to say that it fits perfectly, but unfortunately...I can't. It's a bit too big overall, except at the hips, where it fits very nicely. However, I am optimistic that DH won't mind, especially if I wear it without pants. :D

The thing that does make me nervous is that I've developed a sneaking suspicion over the past few weeks that the thing he's knitting for me is...a Ljod cardigan.

Yeah.

Not that I would mind having two of them, of course! (Especially since I know from seeing the yarn he's been using that they wouldn't be the same colour at all.) What I am nervous about is that he might get really disappointed and let down by the duplicate gift. What would be even worse is if it's a duplicate gift and he doesn't manage to finish his tonight - he's been panic knitting for a while now and, as I type, is camped out in the living room (which I am totally not allowed to enter anymore) frantically knitting, with occasional trips down to the basement, at which point I hear running water (I'm guessing he's blocking stuff).

I wonder if I could convince him that a well-rested husband and half-finished garment would be preferable to me on our anniversary than a tired, barely functional husband and completed garment...

Cautiously optimistic

I should never have opened my big mouth and said that I was going okay on the right front of my Ljod cardigan. Because very shortly after I did that, I discovered that I had to rip back about forty rows and do a lot of the bust shaping again because the pattern hadn't been clear about when to start the neck shaping. (Including the words "at the same time" in the pattern MIGHT HAVE BEEN HELPFUL. I'm just saying.)

However, I finally managed to finish the darn piece and got started on the sleeves, which I'm doing two at a time to avoid the agonies of second sleeve syndrome. (Not to mention ensuring that my shaping is the same for both sleeves.) There are some errata that I will have to consult for the sleeves, but I've skimmed them briefly and I don't have to worry about them until I'm much further along. Here is how all the pieces looked earlier today:

The sleeves are slightly farther along now, but I have re-hidden the project so my husband won't see it when he comes home from his shift, which ends in about fifteen minutes.

I've also made some more headway on that new design I blogged about a few posts ago. It's knitting up fast and I'm fairly pleased with it. I'm not sure exactly how I want it to look when I'm done, but I was kind of winging it when I started it, so I might as well wing it the whole way through.

Also, I have some great news that I can't share yet. But stay tuned; in a few months, you won't be able to stop me from talking about it. :)

Better

To the best of my knowledge, I am now humming along correctly on the right front of my Ljod cardigan. I haven't had a chance to take a picture of it yet, but I'm either done or almost done the bust shaping, which means the piece is pretty close to being finished. Pictures forthcoming.

Despite this good progress, I'm still panicking a bit - 17 days left and I still need to complete the right front, do two sleeves, and finish it all up. Aiee.

When my husband isn't around, I've been working on my Elizabeth of York vest. I finished the right front and got started on the borders.

And I handed off my friend's daughter's cardigan to her parents, who will happily bring it with them when they go to her birthday party in a few weeks. Before I handed it off, though, I used the newly-discovered super-closeup feature on my camera to take this picture, which more accurately depicts how beautiful the yarn variegates:

Oy vey

So today was my first real chance to start working on my Ljod cardigan (since deciding to finish it as my husband's anniversary present): I now know where the pattern book is, and my husband had a shift at work all day. I was so looking forward to making real progress on it. I figured I would make especially good progress since DD3 is recovering from a cold which hit its apex last night and made it really hard for her to sleep, so I thought she'd nap like a champ today because she'd be so tired.

Not.
A.
Chance.

First of all, DD3 woke up earlier than usual and then proceeded to stay awake almost all day, with the exception of a one-hour nap around 1pm, which took me 45 minutes to settle her down into, and which was (temporarily) interrupted 20 minutes in by her waking up and crying. (Even now, she is interrupting the writing of this post by waking up and wailing quite frequently. Poor thing.)

That's not very conducive to figuring out where you last left off in a complex pattern.

And then, getting the right front started (turns out I had left off really, really close to finishing the left front, so I was at least able to wrap that up in a snap) was a total comedy of errors.

Firstly, although I adore her designs, I find the writeups of Elsebeth Lavold's patterns to be confusing/unclear/not as helpful as one might hope for. Secondly, I can be a complete moron sometimes when it comes to the knitting. So that's two huge strikes against me right there.

To start with, the right front instructions just say to follow the left front instructions but reversing all shaping. However, it turns out - once you get about seven rows into it - that it's not just the shaping you need to reverse, but the pattern setup as well. So that necessitated some frogging (fortunately not seven rows' worth, as I actually - gasp - read ahead and discovered the problem early, so I only had to tink back about 30 stitches). Next, I forgot to switch to the larger needles after the bottom ribbing was complete. (Riiiip.) And then I missed starting the gusset decreases until a few rows beyond where the first decrease was supposed to happen. (Riiiip.) And then I compared the right front (nicely in progress at this point) to the left front and the back, and realised that, for whatever reason, my gauge now was way bigger than my gauge then. After doing some measuring, I guesstimated that to fix this, I just needed to work the large-needle bits with the smaller needle size, and I would probably be okay. (Riiiiiiip!)

Not to mention the various phone calls throughout the day that ate into my available time.

Then I went to Knit Night at my LYS, hoping that either DD3 would be able to sleep through it since she was probably exhausted, or that others would want to hold her and I could get some knitting done? No way - she was awake, cranky, and, for the most part, unhappy unless I was holding her.

So no progress shots today, folks - sorry, but there just wasn't enough actual progress to merit it. Yes, at least I've gotten going on the cardigan again, which is great, but I've got just three weeks to do a front, two sleeves, and the making up, and am hampered by the challenge of not being able to knit on this thing when my husband is around (which is often).

Yowza.

One step back, two steps forward

DH spent a lot of time with the baby on Monday so that I could forge ahead with my swatching for my design proposal. And I did...but...in the process discovered that I needed to make a lot of changes to the charts. Changes that would take a lot more figuring and charting and swatching. I estimated that I could neglect my husband and kids and chores a lot over the next week or so in order to pull it off before the submission deadline, but that I and everyone around me would be much happier if I didn't. So I have let the second 2012 design idea drop for the moment (it's totally worth revisiting down the road, though) and submitted the first 2012 design just by itself. So that's ONE.

And in celebration of making an adult, rational decision about My Knitting vs. The Big Picture, I got a little done on my Elizabeth of York vest. Not much, though, as I discovered several rows in that I'd been making a mistake in the pattern for the past, well, several rows, and had to do some surgery.

Today, in order to keep going on the 12-in-12 challenge, I dug up all the swatches and notes I had on my next 2012 design idea. However, in the process, I ran across a chart for another idea I'd had...oh...probably a few years ago now...and started thinking about what I could do with that. So I grabbed some yarn and needles and got started on something completely different. So far, so good.

I also completed my friend's daughter's cardigan!

Front:




Back:

Those pictures, although fairly colour accurate, make the thing look pretty swampy...but in person, the colours are actually really fabulous. It should suit the soon-to-be-birthday girl very well. I really hope she likes it! I'm going to have to get in touch with the grandparents (who live near me), to see if we can get together soon to arrange a handoff so they can give it to my friend (who does not live near me) in time for the birthday.

Tomorrow...I get going on DH's anniversary present!

Work proceeds apace

My 12-in-12 challenge is going fairly well so far. I've got my first submission all ready to go. I haven't sent it off yet, though, because my second submission is going to be to the same publication, so I'm going to wait until both are finished and then send them off in a single package. The second submission is proving a little trickier because it takes way more swatching and planning and perfecting. But hopefully it'll turn out okay. I'm pretty excited about both of them.

After that I will be going full-tilt on things that need to be done for February. I've already made good progress on one thing: the Parfait cardigan I started back in June for the daughter of one of my bestest friends. Her birthday is in February, so that's the perfect time to give it to her. (And I made it in a pretty big size for her, so the fact that she's had half a year of growth since I started is not going to prevent it from fitting...I hope.) I'm on the very last tier before the neckline and am very pleased so far.

The other thing that's in February is my anniversary. In honour of it, I will be gifting my husband with a cardigan...for me.

I know that sounds weird, but there's a perfectly logical explanation. Bear with me.

Years ago, my MIL gave me Elsebeth Lavold's "Designer's Choice book one: The Viking Knits Collection" for Christmas, and enough Silky Wool yarn to make myself pretty much anything in it. (Later on she also gave me the PERFECT buttons for it, so I'm completely set.) I can't remember when I started it, but it was probably shortly after I got the book. I've been working on it excruciatingly slowly in fits and starts ever since - I think I have the back done and one side almost done at this point. And the amount of time that it's taken me to finish it has been absolute torture for my husband, who thinks it's a fabulously sexy cardigan and has been salivating at the prospect of seeing me in the completed garment this whole time. :)

Therefore, as a love present to him, I am planning to have it all done in time for our anniversary.

To that end, I went hunting for the book yesterday...and couldn't find it. This seemed very strange to me, since I was fairly sure where I had left it lying around and it was in absolutely none of the many logical (and some illogical) places I looked for it. I began to suspect, therefore, that perhaps my husband had taken it? To work on something for me for our anniversary, perchance? (He has admitted that my gift is going to be a knitted one.) So when he came home, I mentioned that I'd been looking for it (under the pretext of finishing off a different project I've got that also uses the book), and...wouldn't ya know it...he managed to "find" it really quickly. Now, I could be completely wrong about my suspicions, but the facts of the situation do make it a reasonable theory, I think. I have no idea what he'd be making, though. He's not a fast knitter, so I don't think he would be trying a sweater or cardigan. Maybe it's the Gram cap, or mittens, or the Tyra hat. We shall see.

And in between all this proposal-preparing and deadline knitting, I've been making some progress on other stuff. DD1's socks now both have legs:

And I'm getting ready to start the legs of the socks for DD2.

I haven't made any progress on DD3's giraffe toy, but I did at least take a picture of the one measly hoof I've done so far:

And I started and frogged the Tyrolean Mittens from Marcia Lewandowski's book "Folk Mittens". This is as far as I got:

I started them as a charity project for my LYS's charity knit night, but firstly, it turns out that charity knit night has now turned into just a regular knit night, and secondly, even though I went down to a sport weight yarn from the called-for worsted weight yarn, the mittens were still coming out really big. I love the pattern a lot, so I'll have to try again another time at a smaller gauge.

I know you don't want to hear it...

Christmas is coming.

(Of course, I'm right in the middle of getting the house clean for Thanksgiving, and sewing up the cloak for DD1's Red Riding Hood costume for Hallowe'en, but nevertheless...Christmas is coming.)

Now, I don't celebrate Christmas in the religious sense. I celebrate it in the gift-giving, seeing-family, eating-a-lovely-meal, celebrating-the-end-of-another-year, trying-to-find-something-to-get-happy-about-in-the-middle-of-all-the-snow sort of sense. The gift-giving is especially fun for me, even though I do most of the thinking-up of gift ideas, buying stuff, knitting gifts, and wrapping presents around here. (If you read just a soupçon of bitterness into that, you would be correct.) So yes, it's stressful...but it's also a lot of fun. I've got some gift plans this year that I'm quite excited about, and quite an ambitious knitting to-do list.

In a moment, I will reveal this list, but first, I want to make sure no one is reading it who shouldn't. So, a short quiz...

1. Are you a descendant of my parents and/or my husband's parents?
2. Do you provide care or education for any of my children?
3. Are you cared for by my children's daycare provider? (That includes her kids!)

If you answered 'yes' to any of these questions, then for heaven's sake, get your nosy eyes off the blog this minute!

Ahem.

So, the list...

Mi escuelita for Devangi

This is coming along really nicely. Both sleeves are done and attached to the body, and I'm decreasing for the raglan shaping.



I am nervous that I'm going to run out of yarn, though.

Cotton wool socks for Mom

These have not seen any work for I can't remember how long. I've been at the done-first-sock-started-second-sock stage for...oooh...ugh. Over a year, I'm guessing. But I'm hoping to be able to find the motivation to pick it back up and finish it off in time for Christmas.

Barbie wardrobe for DD1

I've got several items that I'm hoping to finish. On the needles right now is Rhonda Gehringer's Summer Sorbet Dress for Barbie, in white. I'm going to make the skirt fuller and longer than the instructions say to, because I think DD1 would like something that could pass as a wedding gown. So far, we have this:



Other Barbie garments I'm hoping to finish include Judy Gibson's Barbie's Basic Tube Dress; Isabelle Dutailly's Robe tube arc-en-ciel pour Barbie (Barbie's rainbow tube dress); the long coat from Elaine Phillips's Barbie Elegant 2-Piece Suit; and Silvana Catallo's Gilet Big Jem (something for Ken).

Socks for DD2

It's not tremendously vital that I manage to finish these, but I thought it would be nice. For one thing, with the cold weather coming, I'm feeling a deeply parental responsibility to keep my children's extremities as warm as possible. And for another thing, toddler-size socks are super easy to make out of the yarn left over from making adult-size socks, which I have rather a lot of, so I wouldn't need to go out and buy any new yarn. Also, small socks are fast and cute.

Socks for Dad

My dad is pretty hard to come up with gift ideas for; at least, gift ideas that I can actually afford. (Ideas would come thick and fast if my budget were big enough to buy fancy camera doodads and gadgets, for example.) But I know he loves my hand-made socks. I'm thinking about Alice Bell's "Bakerloo" pattern, which is a sideways sock pattern that can apparently be done up to look like the keys of a piano. My dad's unpursued career dream was to become a concert pianist, and he adores classical music, so I think this would be much appreciated.

Double-knitted mitts for BIL#2

BIL#2 has recently moved to Ottawa. It gets cold in Ottawa, and I want to make sure he is warm. Last year I knitted him a hat, so this year it's going to be mitts. I will be using Marcia Lewandowski's Houndstooth Double Knit Mittens pattern from her book, "Folk Mittens" (although it can also apparently be found in Interweave Knits Winter 1997 issue). I'll probably use Cascade 220 - I'll get two masculine colours which vary slightly so that the pattern is understated. DH agrees with me that this is a great idea, so this project is a must-finish.

Ragna sweater for my brother

Finishing this in time for Christmas would mean one less gift idea I'd have to come up with for my brother. (He's tough to buy for.) Unfortunately, I have no idea how I'll manage to finish in time. If memory serves, I've finished the back and am close to finishing the front, but there has been a serious screwup and my row count is totally off. Getting back into it is going to be a challenge, to say nothing of the fact that I still have to do both sleeves and all the making up. We'll just have to wait and see on this one.

Challah cover for DD1's teacher

DD1's teacher has a Jewish surname and took the day off on Yom Kippur, so I'm guessing a challah cover will be a nice gift for her. Judith Goodman Johnson's Challah Cover [scroll down to find it] pattern is really beautiful - I particularly like how the cabled braid around the edge mirrors the shaping of the bread. :) I will be changing up the wording, though, so that it doesn't look quite so "busy". Probably a nice, simple "Shabbat Shalom" (in Hebrew, of course) will work well.

DD1, who has been enjoying the role of "spy", informs me that her teacher's favourite colour is purple. So I will pick up some nice purple cotton fingering weight sometime fairly soon.

Ljod for moi

I'm toying with the notion of trying to finish this in time for Christmas as a gift for my husband. Yes, it would be a cardigan for me to wear, but it's very shape-accentuating, so really it would be for him, if you know what I mean. :) However, the odds of me actually being able to finish it in time on top of everything else I need to do are pretty much zero, so I suspect this will end up being an anniversary present or something.

Tree skirt for our tree

Right now we have just some green cloth to cover up the plastic legs of our Christmas tree. It works okay, but a knitted tree skirt - such as the gorgeous cabled one by Teva Durham in "Handknit Holidays" - would be scads better. Will I have time? Probably not, but it's worth putting on the list of things to attempt, anyway.

Wish me luck. Maybe elves will show up and help me...

I'm not dead

It's just really hard to find the time to blog. Without, y'know, neglecting the children; or leaving everyone with nothing clean to wear; or blogging at work; or cutting into my knitting time; or deciding that my kids don't actually need birthday parties. Stuff like that.

When did life get so TIME CRUNCHED?!? Augh!

(Don't answer that. I know when.)

But I digress.

Knitting has indeed been continuing to happen. Actually, finding knitting time is super-easy, as my work commute is about 85 minutes each way. As much as I detest having to get up really early; not seeing the girls in the morning; and spending so much time in transit, it is still really lovely to have a good hour and a half per day to myself, all for knitting, in a (fairly) comfy commuter train seat, with sun coming in through the windows, listening to knitting podcasts.

And so, here's what I've been up to...

Ragna for bro

This continues to grow. I'm about three or four inches away from the neck shaping, I think. The cables look awesome. (No surprise there, since Elsebeth Lavold designed them.)

Ljod for moi

I don't think I've actually worked on this any more since my last blog post, but I have taken an updated picture:

Prototype sock

Design inspiration struck again. (I love it when that happens.) After various false starts, I made a prototype sock (just one, made from leftover sock yarn that I've now used up, so it will, sadly, never have a mate). I'm really happy with it, but that's all I'm going to say for the moment. Hopefully I'll eventually be able to tell you more about it. :)

Christmas socks for Dad

Fresh from my triumph with the prototype sock of my own design, I decided to use the same design for my dad's Christmas socks this year (to heck with what I'd been working on before), ripped out what I had, and re-cast on. I may continue to try putting some snazzy subtle twist-knit cables on it to change it up a bit...but I'm not sure.

Comfy Angel's Nest for baby ?

I realised that I needed to do some more baby knitting. There are...

Hm. Wait just a second...

Chris, are you reading this? Get the heck off my blog now. You have a baby coming! Stop peeking!

(Not the most respectful way to speak to one's boss, sorry, man, but sometimes one needs to go to strange lengths to preserve the shroud of knitted gift mystery.)

Ahem.

You think he's gone now? (Admittedly, I don't think he ever reads this blog, I'm just being overly cautious and silly.)

Okay. Then, to resume...

I returned to work last month after my mat leave to find that my director was expecting his second child. (Yay!) He told me not to knit anything for him, but I am going to totally ignore that because I am, well, me. What I really would like to give him is the Sweetness prototype - it's recently knitted, already washed, hasn't been worn by my baby daughter except for the photo shoot, and is too small for her now anyway. And I really want that top to go to a nice home, because I think it's deliciously pretty and I really, really love it. The downside of this plan, of course, is that this would be a really useless gift if the baby turns out to be a boy. So I need a backup plan.

I found this sleep sack pattern through Ravelry's awesome pattern search, and I think it's really cute. I'm making it bigger than the pattern calls for, because it's a rather warm item of clothing, completely inappropriate for spring and summer wear. So if I make it about 6-9 months size, that will do well for fall/winter for this baby.

Here is how it's going so far:



Cute, eh? And the good part is that if I don't end up using it for my boss' baby, I'll send it off to Australia where my cousin (once removed) is expecting her first baby, due this fall (her spring). Again, the timing will be perfect, since the size I'm making will fit the baby in Australia's fall/winter. Tadah, I win no matter what, because if this project ends up going to my boss, I'll simply make my cousin something else nice.

Lliclla for MIL

Every year I look for something spectacular to make for my MIL, and every year I have tons of wonderful ideas, and every year I can't afford any of them. Le sigh.

I have deeply wanted to make her Helen Hamann's Llcilla mantle for almost two years, ever since I won the book with the pattern in it. It is truly spectacular, and the colours used in the model for the book would suit my MIL (a redhead) bee-yew-tifully. But I've been stymied by the price of the yarn it would take. Actually, no, not really the price of the yarn. I have actually found two places which offer appropriate yarn in more-or-less the right colours, and the yarn is vaguely within my budget: elann.com's Peruvian Highland Wool and KnitPicks's Wool of the Andes Yarn (hmm, I sense a theme...). Unfortunately, this affordability of both of these hits the crapper when you add the shipping cost.

I felt like weeping. Here was the yarn that would make this gorgeous thing, and my budget could almost handle it...but not quite.

But then...I had an epiphany.

If I ordered something in addition to the Christmas project yarn...something really inexpensive that I could slough off on some other part of our household budget...well then, I could have that part of the budget 'eat' the shipping costs, and I'd only have to assign the cost of the yarn for Lliclla to the Christmas budget! YES!

Almost giddy with glee, I added four balls of Elann's Sock It to Me 4 Ply yarn in black to my cart, and checked the whole thing right on out. I make black socks for DH as gifts and clothing ALL THE TIME. I'm going to account the sock yarn and the shipping charge to the birthday presents budget, or the clothing budget, and all will be taken care of.

Ahhhhhh. I can't wait to get the yarn. I'm going to cast that sucker on so fast it'll make your head swim.

Unless the colours end up being totally different from how they looked on my monitor. Then I shall cry.

Oh, and if it turns out that the yarn sale that my LYS is having this Saturday brings other yarn that would've been good for this project into my price range...well, I'll cry then, too.

Wish me luck!

And finally, I have the photographs for the two KWB/TSF hats I mentioned in my last post:

Child KWB/TSF Hat #2

Baby KWB/TSF Hat

Emerging from the hat jag

Ack. Trying to get caught up on your blogging when you're working/commuting/spending time with your children/sleeping/doing chores for 23 hours out of 24 is challenging, to say the least. Fortunately, the commuting time is also knitting time, so even if I can't post about my knitting progress, I am at least making some.

So let's start with the whole KWB/TSF hat thing. Thank you very much to the folks who gave their opinions on price point. A very strong majority (including people on a bulletin board I'm on that I polled for help, too) liked the $4.99 price, so that's what it is. If you'd like to get yourself a copy of the pattern, you can either click on the 'Buy now' link for it in the sidebar at the right, or head on down to my LYS if you're in the area - the owner, June, has very kindly agreed to sell it in the shop. As mentioned, all profits will be donated to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, which is an extremely worthy cause, so if the pattern tempts you, by all means, give in. :) Especially exciting was getting a gungo-ho comment from the Director of Fundraising for MSF Canada herself. Wow! (Thanks so much, Gill, for sending Rebecca over!) The lovely news is that I've sold nine copies in the week-and-a-half or so since publishing it. Hopefully that's just the beginning.

Unsurprisingly, the hat jag continues. I know it's probably incredibly egotistical of me to be complimenting my own pattern, but I just find it really addictive and enjoyable. Actually, the only reason I was able to stop making more hats from it is that I started to run out of yarn. So far, we have: (and yes, some of these pictures are repeats from a few weeks ago, sorry)

Original KWB/TSF Hat

This one will be going to the neighbour kid/young man who inspired me to start making the thing in the first place. I just have to find the right moment to give it. Right as the winter is finishing and spring is starting doesn't exactly strike me as the perfect time, so I'll probably be waiting until the school year is over to make it more of a 'thanks for all your help with my kid in her first year of school' kind of thing.

KWB/TSF hat for DD2

This was the second one I made. DD2 needed a winter hat. Also, she was feeling the need to look cute as all get-out:



I swear, I get all squeaky and cooey every single time I see that shot.

KWB/TSF sample hat

My favourite colourway yet, I think. I love how the top of the hat looks like it's blushing on the lighter-colour-as-background side. I made this for Knitters Attic to display in the shop, since they're selling the pattern, and then later on when June doesn't want to display it anymore, I suspect it will come home and be mineallmine, even though I look crappy in earth tones.

First KWB/TSF hat for an actual charity

This one will be extremely hard to part with because it suits my older daughter's colour so fantastically. See how good she looks in it?

I've also made two more of the hats - another in the child size, and one in the baby size, but I haven't taken pictures yet. Soon, soon. And I've got another one on the go right now...but it's on hold for the moment because the colourway isn't jazzing me.

So I've taken advantage of the hat jag lull to make a wee bit of headway on The Schedule...

Ragna for bro

This came with me on my commute for a few days, and grew quite a bit. Again, no pictures yet, sorry - I'll try to get one up soon. (Hint: It looks exactly like it did the last time you saw it, except longer.)

Unfortunately, I've had to stop because it's getting close to the point where I'll need to start shaping the neck...and I have no clue exactly where that point is. I have completely lost the notes I took when my mom and I snuck into my brother's room one evening and measured one of his favourite sweatshirts for size. I remember what the width of the sweatshirt was supposed to be, because I got gauge exactly to achieve it...but length? Armhole depth? No freakin' clue. I've asked my mom to try and find the sweatshirt again (can we even remember which sweatshirt it was...heck, no!) and get me a re-do of the measurements. Until then, it stays on hold.

Ljod for moi

Faced with absolutely NOTHING ELSE I could take on my commute today, I packed this.

I swear, every single time I pull this project back out I am surprised by how much I enjoy it. Why do I keep being surprised by this? The yarn is gorgeous, the pattern is terrific, it knits up very quickly...and yet, when I'm not working on it, for some reason I consider it this big drag that I don't feel like getting back to. My psychology is weird, I tell you, weird.

Again, unfortunately, no pictures of the progress on this, but I've gotten far enough along on the left front that I've finished the cable pattern and am approaching the end of the decreasing for the hips.

And now, I'm off to bed. I do have more topics to get caught up with, blogging-wise (such as stuff about my Sweetness pattern and the Yarn Harlot's book launch), but it will have to wait for another time.

Later!

Crap! Somehow I managed to erase this entry from my journal. Well, I remember I talked about being really tired. I also mentioned that during my visit with my parents last night, my mom took me to the apartment of a lady in her building who is an avid knitter and crocheter, well into her 80s, who used to own a yarn store. This lady is now having too much pain in her shoulders and trembling in her hands to continue her crafting ways (and I fervently hope this never happens to me), so she's offloading her supplies and stash, free! Admittedly, the stash wasn't very good - most of it was odds and ends of acrylic. But there was some acrylic nice enough to take home, and I also took away a bunch of needles that will make great additions to my collection. There was also an English or Canadian needle gauge in the tin of supplies which has a 3mm hole! Happy me.

I did manage to save my progress list:

Ljod cardigan for moi

Okay, I didn't actually get any work done on this, but I did fish the project out so my mom could feel it. Boy do I want to get back to this project! The yarn is sooo yummy...

Catherine Parr sweater for MIL

Work continues! I've now got almost 14" done on the front. I'm about ten centimetres away from starting the neck shaping.

Spanish Knight sweater for Mom

She loves the Lavold silky wool. Of course she does - it's the most expensive of all the samples! Argh! But she does really like it. And the lava shade would really look great on her. Sigh. Maybe I'll keep a lookout on eBay. I have a year, after all...